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Could anyone offer instuctions or a point of reference on how to change my left drive shaft bearing on my wifes 2002 Polaris XC 600. I have been told it is not a hard job and could be done in a matter of 1 -2 hrs. Any help would be great.

You are going to want to change the bearings on both sides. If you do one you might as well do both. The only way I think you can do it is to remove the rear skid and take out the driveshaft. Which includes removing the bearing in the chaincase as well. I am interested to see if anyone has an easier way of doing this.

Originally posted by EmpireSportRiders@Jan 20 2005, 11:41 AMCould anyone offer instuctions or a point of reference on how to change my left drive shaft bearing on my wifes 2002 Polaris XC 600.* I have been told it is not a hard job and could be done in a matter of 1 -2 hrs.* Any help would be great.

Thanks :beerchug:
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I've done this job.
Pull the suspension out (4 bolts)
Take off secondary clutch
Remove exhaust pipe and muffler
Drain chaincase oil
Remove gearcase cover, gears, and chain
Remove speedo drive, and bearing carrier (left side)
Slide driveshat out twards left
Replace bearing and reassemble
You'll probably need a new speedo drive gasket and maybe a new speedo drive key. The bearing is about $40 and it presses off and the new one you'll have to press on.
Time wise I don't know that 1-2 hours is possible - maybe for two people. It took me about 4-5 hours, but I did some clean up on the parts also. Not a real difficult job, but it is a pain in the ass. I was told that in 2002 Polaris had some problems with bearings on that side - Polaris says they got bad ones from a supplier - supplier says the company that supplies the driveshaft was installing them wrong. Anyway some went out with like 700-1,000 miles on them

Originally posted by Superski@Jan 20 2005, 01:12 PMI've done this job.
Pull the suspension out (4 bolts)
Take off secondary clutch
Remove exhaust pipe and muffler
Drain chaincase oil
Remove gearcase cover, gears, and chain
Remove speedo drive, and bearing carrier (left side)
Slide driveshat out twards left
Replace bearing and reassemble
You'll probably need a new speedo drive gasket and maybe a new speedo drive key. The bearing is about $40 and it presses off and the new one you'll have to press on.
Time wise I don't know that 1-2 hours is possible - maybe for two people. It took me about 4-5 hours, but I did some clean up on the parts also. Not a real difficult job, but it is a pain in the ass. I was told that in 2002 Polaris had some problems with bearings on that side - Polaris says they got bad ones from a supplier - supplier says the company that supplies the driveshaft was installing them wrong. Anyway some went out with like 700-1,000 miles on them
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Thank you very much for your help. I guess I will try and get into it and fix it. My wifes sled just turned 1500...it is too bad Polaris did not issue a recall for this.

Originally posted by jbshocks@Jan 20 2005, 01:33 PMsorry to tell you it is not a polaris issue.* It is a lube issue.
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I bought the sled for her with 1000 miles on it, I guess that is the chance you take when you don't know the history. Lets just hope it is an easy fix and that will remedy the problem of the chattering upon take off.

Lube issue ? It's sealed bearing on the left side. The only grease ya use there is for the speedo drive. After/during the time I did the job I talked with several friends that had the same bearing go out on them, mine wnet at 740 miles - hell that ain't hardly even to the point of greasing anythig yet.
The story I hear from people who knew people at Polaris was they were getting some warranty on that bearing - now realize this was a poor snow year and a lot of owners weren't putting on any miles, but they looked into it. They thought maybe some faulty bearings, but couldn't isolate because bearings weren't date coded. Polaris susposedly gets the driveshaft complete with bearing from a sub-contractor and the bearing supplier visited that facility and said the tooling they used to press the bearing on with was faulty and they were being pressed on crooked causing excessive stress thus causing early failure. The sub-contractor says BS and because Polaris has no idea how many shafts might be affected or how they can tell easily they'll just let the normal warranty deal with it remember minimal snow that year so minimal warranty exposure.
I don't know if all of this is true or not because i got it second hand, but if ya watch this site you'll see guys saying that their speedo quits woking at low miles and it turns out the bearing went bad, and usually low miles. I've talked with several friends that had faulty bearings also and these are all long time Polaris riders who maintain their sleds - hell I know people that have thousands of miles on driveshaft bearings and never even knew about the grease fitting on the speedo drive - for these to go bad at such low mileage is unusual unless some problem exists, but then Polaris also claims there isn't that much problem with the Edge sleds overheating either. I'm a Polaris guy and have been since 1969, I like thier sleds, but wish they would stand behind some of these issues better. There are alot of people out there that bought 2002 sleds that because of poor winters havn't put on many miles and didn't get the warranty fixes on the overheat issue either cause they were lucky and didn't experience it. When they do they'll have to buy the new bottles and coolers out of thier own pockets and do the work themselves

Originally posted by Superski@Jan 20 2005, 02:27 PMLube issue ? It's sealed bearing on the left side. The only grease ya use there is for the speedo drive. After/during the time I did the job I talked with several friends that had the same bearing go out on them, mine wnet at 740 miles - hell that ain't hardly even to the point of greasing anythig yet.
* The story I hear from people who knew people at Polaris was they were getting some warranty on that bearing - now realize this was a poor snow year and a lot of owners weren't putting on any miles, but they looked into it. They thought maybe some faulty bearings, but couldn't isolate because bearings weren't date coded. Polaris susposedly gets the driveshaft complete with bearing from a sub-contractor and the bearing supplier visited that facility and said the tooling they used to press the bearing on with was faulty and they were being pressed on crooked causing excessive stress thus causing early failure. The sub-contractor says BS and because Polaris has no idea how many shafts might be affected or how they can tell easily they'll just let the normal warranty deal with it remember minimal snow that year so minimal warranty exposure.
* I don't know if all of this is true or not because i got it second hand, but if ya watch this site you'll see guys saying that their speedo quits woking at low miles and it turns out the bearing went bad, and usually low miles. I've talked with several friends that had faulty bearings also and these are all long time Polaris riders who maintain their sleds - hell I know people that have thousands of miles on driveshaft bearings and never even knew about the grease fitting on the speedo drive - for these to go bad at such low mileage is unusual unless some problem exists, but then Polaris also claims there isn't that much problem with the Edge sleds overheating either. I'm a Polaris guy and have been since 1969, I like thier sleds, but wish they would stand behind some of these issues better. There are alot of people out there that bought 2002 sleds that because of poor winters havn't put on many miles and didn't get the warranty fixes on the overheat issue either cause they were lucky and didn't experience it. When they do they'll have to buy the new bottles and coolers out of thier own pockets and do the work themselves
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now that is INTERESTING

Funny, I have had both of my XC's in the shop for the coolant botles and and as we speak they are getting the longer snowflap installed with the ongoing temp light coming on.

While I'm venting, just about everyone I know with a 2001,2002, 0r 2003 500 or 600 XC has had the heat light come on at some point - so they don't have the greatest cooling system. Polaris knows this, but has linitted the warranty support. I think if they wanted a great PR tool it would be to warranty these bottles (ols style) out for everone that has experiences problems. Maybe bring in your old bottles and they exchange for new even if sled warranty was over - these bottles couldn't cost THEM more tan $5. Might be better and cheaper advertising than they think
The bearing issue, well that's another. I've asked 3 0r 4 different dealers about it and they have all said they don't know anything about it, but that's the usual BS they always give. I'd be willing to bet Polaris has an idea just by replacement part counts. IN FACT I just spoke to a guy that also needed the whole driveshaft because when the bearing let loose it chewed up the journal on the shaft - the shafts were on back order for like 60 days, could be this bearing issue affects more than just a few people. Bottom line is it would be nice if the'd cover that kind of failure for like 1500 miles cause at the minimum they should go that long. By the way the driveshaft ran the guy $180